Barclay CTA Index up 0.57 per cent in March

Fund data for this article

Managed futures gained 0.57 per cent in March, according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge.

The index is up 1.07 per cent year to date.

“A decoupling of US growth from global markets and aggressive easing by the Bank of Japan provided the impetus for a profitable month,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge. “Traders that were long US and Japanese equities and short EUR and JPY against the USD enjoyed good returns."

“On the commodity side, long positions in natural gas and crude oil provided profits, but prices for precious as well as base metals and agricultural commodities declined,” says Waksman. The Agricultural Traders Index was down 0.40 per cent in March, and was the only losing managed futures strategy for the month.

After three months, all eight BarclayHedge CTA indices are in positive territory. The Currency Traders Index has gained 1.51 per cent, Diversified Traders are up 1.42 per cent, and Systematic Traders have gained 1.31 per cent.

The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which measures performance of the largest CTAs, gained 0.77 per cent in March, and is currently up 2.48 per cent for the year.